Don't increase deficit to help the wealthy

In a cynical bid by Republicans to reach out to conservative voters before the fall mid-term elections, the U.S. Senate is considering a permanent repeal of the federal estate tax.

In a time of spiking government deficits, repeal of a tax that affects only the wealthiest one-half of 1 percent of American families is not only unnecessary but irresponsible.

A study by the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities has shown that in the next 10 years, such a repeal would cost nearly $1 trillion and help the deficit grow.

In Connecticut, the richest state per capita, only 640 families owed estate taxes in 2004, amounting to only 2.2 percent of all estates.

Among the richest people in the nation, such multimillionaires as
Bill Gates
Sr., father of the founder of Microsoft, and

Howard Behar
, former president of Starbucks, have campaigned against the repeal.

In a country where all benefit from the democracy, education and infrastructure that are in place, they believe the rich should reinvest in America, its future and its children, not just their own families.

It was President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
who said, "Inherited economic power is as inconsistent with the ideals of this generation as inherited political power was inconsistent with the ideals of the generation which established our government."

The estate tax began in 1916 to reduce the concentration of wealth; but now, the nation's richest 1 percent of people own 33 percent of the wealth.

Who should pay to make up for the mounting federal deficit of $8.4 trillion and counting? It's unfair to tax working Americans while completely eliminating a tax on unrealized capital gains of the ultra-rich.

Lawmakers should vote no and instead find a way to pay off the federal deficit, not make it even larger.